Next gen alternative to conventional photo printing technology
· Introduces premium commercial inkjet photo printer for retail and albums.
· Aims at digitizing India’s 3000 CR photo print market, 10% of which is digital as of now.
· Selects G K Vale, a 100 year old photo lab in Bangalore as the first partner.
· G K Vale positions the premium print version as HD prints.
Bangalore, December 18, 2013: Canon India Pvt Ltd., India’s No. 1 Complete Digital Imaging Company, today announced its entry into the commercial photo printing business in India, introducing the newDreamLabo 5000 commercial inkjet printer equipment targeting the retail photo and album printing industry. With this new launch, Canon India marks its entry into the commercial photo printing market, a new business domain for the company.
The press announcement event was attended by Mr. Kensaku Konishi – President & CEO, Canon Singapore Pte Ltd.
Delivering a new standard of combined photo and text quality together with high productivity, the DreamLabo offers the production photo printing market a viable alternative to silver halide technology, which will revitalize the photo printing market in the country. In addition, through opportunities possible from premium quality, it offers both the production photo and the small batch premium print-on-demand (POD) markets substantial new revenue opportunities.
This launch makes India the first country in South Asia where the Dreamlabo 5000 machines is being installed.
Present at the launch ceremony in Bangalore, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India, said, “Canon has always been at the forefront of bringing innovative products to customers. With this latest business entry, we are hoping to strengthen our ability to meet the printing needs of professional and wedding photographers. With the DreamLabo 5000, we clearly want to establish innovation leadership in India. For us at Canon India, this is not just a new machine, but the technology that can revitalize the entire industry and open up substantial new business opportunities. Canon is setting a new benchmark for the production printing of high quality photos with this launch.”
Till date, Canon has offered an extensive selection of imaging products across a range of markets, from digital cameras for amateur and professional-level photographers, to home-use printers that allow users to easily create and enjoy beautiful photo prints & digital multifunctional printers for enterprises to address their document management solutions. Additionally, satisfying the exacting needs of industry professionals, the company has launched high-performance professional-model photo printers, large-format printers and digital printing presses.
GK Vale, a Canon India premium partner from Bangalore, who also operates 9 Canon Image Square stores in the city, is the first customer to purchase and install this in India.
Further elaborating on the announcement, Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive Vice President, Canon India, said, “India is a 3000 crore photo printing industry with lion share coming from wedding albums & travel vacation photos. While there is tremendous change in photo capturing, the printing art is still dominated with conventional technology. Conventional silver halide technology is just too old and digital alternative is not matching customer expectations. There was enormous scope of value creation in this space. Our partners call the new Dreamlabo 5000 prints as HD (high definition) prints. We plan to start with Rs. 15 crore coming out of this domain in 2014. It has a potential to create 100 crore business stream in 5 years.”
He further added “This launch has put India on a global map of Hi quality digital photo printing. To promote this business and to impact a larger ecosystem, Canon organized a meet comprising of photo labs, wedding photographers, wedding planners and event agencies in Bangalore today”.
Leveraging and extending Canon’s existing inkjet technology, which it has successfully deployed through its PIXMA desktop printers range, the DreamLabo 5000 features a newly developed high-density print head, enabling over 300 mm wide printing output.Incorporating Canon’s FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) technology, the print head enables the printing of high-quality photos and detailed text to support a
variety of high-value-added output, from premium photo albums, photo books, photo calendars, photo collages and other merchandise to high-quality POD items, such as bespoke brochures.
The wide print head delivers high-speed One-Pass Printing, requiring only a single pass of the printing paper while the print head remains in a fixed position. When used in combination with the automatic Double-sided Printing function, the DreamLabo 5000 is capable of printing the contents of A4 size print approx.1,000 page and 4×6 single print approx. 2,300 page per hour.
The system also realizes high productivity by enabling paper and ink tank replacement during printing, supporting the extended operation times required for production printers.
DreamLabo 5000 uses a seven-colour dye-based ink system that delivers smooth gradation. Employing image processing technology that makes use of the full range of Canon’s unique inkjet printing colour gamut, the new printer enables the output of photo images with a level of colour representation comprehensively surpasses that of conventional silver halide.
*: Measured Silver Halide Color Gamut (Based on a standard silver-halide market
Photo sample)
The retail price of DreamLabo 5000 in INDIA is approximately INR 4.5 crore. Canon will be working with its sales team and channel partners to reach out to the masses with this new area of business. CCI Newswire
